Saturday, March 12, 2016

NOVENA TO ST. JOSEPH - THIRD DAY


          Our Lord obeys St. Joseph

  Jesus was subject to them. – St. Luke 2:51

How glorious to Joseph is this dignity of father of Jesus Christ! By it he is constituted master of the Saviour, and allowed to dispose of Him as a father disposes of his son.

Jesus was the King of Heaven, and yet Joseph had full authority over Him. He had a right to command Him, because Jesus by becoming his son had voluntarily ceded His liberty to him.

 St. Joseph was served about thirty years by Jesus Christ; he employed Him in his work shop just as a workman employs his assistant, making Him share in his labors and fatigues.

Virtues to be imitated in St. Joseph

His respect towards Jesus, even in the exercise of his authority.

The mildness of his commands.

His faith at the sight of Jesus reduced to the condition of child and servant.

Prayer
Blessed Joseph, would that I had the wisdom of the cherubim, and the zeal of the seraphim, to celebrate worthily the dignity which gives thee the right of commanding Him whom the angels adore with respect and trembling! I honor and revere this incomparable dignity. I rejoice to see the Son of God attentive and submissive to thy least signs. At the sight of an incarnate God, who places all His liberty in thy hands, I cannot withhold offering thee the homage of mine; dispose of it as thou wilt. In consideration of the humble obedience and the divine services Jesus rendered thee as thy son, during so many years, in the house of Nazareth, or as a workman in thy workshop, obtain that my will, henceforth docile, may resist God no longer, nor those who take His place towards me here on earth. Grant that, after thy example, I may command my inferiors with humility, and seeing in them the person of Jesus Christ, that I may treat them with charitable respect and attention. Amen.





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